


a perfect fit

by polkadottedmars



Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, First Meetings, Undercover Case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 05:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4948939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polkadottedmars/pseuds/polkadottedmars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nancy needs Ned's help with a sabotage case, changing both their lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a perfect fit

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to ndnickerson for her help with this!

It’s bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding. Ned knows that really only applies to the groom, but standing there, watching her examine herself in the full-length mirror, he feels like he’s been sucker punched. Some other man is lucky enough to call her his bride.

He never expected this when his aunt asked him to stop by the bridal shop to pick up his cousin’s wedding dress. His house is ground zero for the impending nuptials, and this morning the past few days of rising before the sun so he could sneak out caught up to him. He slept through this alarm and on his way out, crossed paths with his aunt, who was more than happy to request his help with some errands.

The bride twirls one final time, her dress flowing around her, before she steps down from the small platform. He knows he shouldn’t, but Ned waits until she leaves to change out of the gown and returns in a pair of jeans and a faded maroon tank top. Somehow she’s even more gorgeous in these comfortable clothes than the elaborate dress.

She’s alone, waiting for the attendant, when he gathers up the courage to walk up to her. He knows this is going nowhere; she is engaged after all, but he can’t stop from introducing himself to her. She bites her lip, a clear indication that she’s nervous about something. Still, Ned can’t help but feel like she’s the most confident person he’s met.

Instead of telling him her name, she asks if he’s here with his fiancée.

“No. I’m, uh, single,” he mutters, confused, but delighted all the same, that the bride is inquiring about his dating status.

She brushes off her confusion as to why he’s hanging around a bridal shop. “Not any longer. I’m Nancy, your fiancée.”

“Shouldn’t you buy me dinner first?” he jokes, knowing what a laugh his friends are going to have over this.

“Just play along and I’ll give you whatever you want,” Nancy says. Casting a sideways glance, she adds, “Within reason.”

“Is a date within reason?”

She doesn’t have time to answer, the attendant making a beeline toward them.

“I was starting to think you didn’t exist, “ the woman coos. “What kind of bride doesn’t have pictures of her husband-to-be on her phone to show off?”

“I told her how I haven’t swapped photos to my new phone yet, honey,” Nancy says.

Ned nods. “She’s just been so busy with wedding plans and house hunting.” He holds out his hand to Nancy. “Let me see it.”

Nancy looks at him puzzled, but pulls out her phone, unlocking and handing it to him.

Ned hits a few buttons, opening the camera, before handing it to the attendant. “Would you mind?” He wraps an arm around his new fiancée, and they smile at each other as the flash goes off. Ned grabs the phone back before Nancy has a chance, and sends the photo to himself, saving his number to her phone.

They walk out hand-in-hand. “Care to explain why you’re trying on wedding dresses when you’re not getting married?” Ned asks as the door shuts behind them.

“One of the employees is sabotaging weddings,” she explains. “I’m investigating.”

“I was just getting used to the idea of marrying you,” Ned muses. “I’d hate for our wedding to be ruined.”

Nancy blushes. “Thanks for your help. I think Martha was starting to get suspicious. No ring, no photo…” she trails off. “Given my age, she even dropped hints about me being ashamed of a much older fiancé. Hopefully this appeases her for now.”

“I’m happy to help,” Ned tells her honestly. “You do owe me, though,” he adds. “I’ll call you with the details of our date. Dress for a wedding.”

“Wedding? You do understand that this is pretend, right?” Nancy asks, grinning.

“Don’t worry,” he answers, backing away. “It’s not ours...yet.”

///

Her phone rings later that night, as she’s washing the dinner dishes. “Can you get that, Dad? I’m expecting a call about the case I’m working on.”

Carson puts down the glass was drying to reach for phone. “Nancy?" he says, his tone reserved. “Is there something you forgot to tell me?” he asks, holding out her phone.

“Hm?” She turns to face him, startled to see the picture she took with Ned earlier flashing on the screen.

“It appears your future husband is calling,” Carson says wryly, reading off the contact name Ned saved his name under.

Nancy quickly dries her hands and grabs the phone. “I’ll finish these later, “ she yells out as she runs up the stairs. “Hello?” she answers, shutting her bedroom door behind her.

“How’s my favorite fiancée?” Ned teases.

“I hope I’m your only fiancée,” Nancy says, trying to keep the possessiveness she’s feeling out of her voice. “Um, because that would blow my cover,” she quickly adds. “Thanks again.”

“No problem,” he answers smoothly. “Well, my aunt wasn’t too pleased when I came home without my cousin’s dress.”

“Oh no,” Nancy says. “I’m sorry. Of course you were there for a reason.”

“It’s okay. Really. I was ill-equipped for the job to begin with, but everyone else was busy,” Ned replies. “Besides, my family was so excited about our upcoming wedding, they didn’t care. They can’t wait to meet you on Saturday.”

“Saturday?” Nancy asks.

“My cousin’s wedding,” Ned answers. “Our date.”

“I think that’s a little much for a first date.”

Ned murmurs his agreement. “I’d suggest we go out on Friday night to get that first date out of the way, but I have the rehearsal dinner. But if you come to the wedding, you can see Martha in action.”

Nancy ponders the opportunity for a moment, surprised that seeing Ned again is more appealing than the chance to stake-out Martha. “What did you really tell your family?”

“That I’m helping a charming detective investigate the wedding shop. My aunt got really freaked out by the word sabotage and wanted details.”

Nancy sighs. “I’ve been in contact with people associated with five different failed weddings. Two couples didn’t even make it to the altar—one groom was caught cheating,” she says, adding air quotes, blushing when she realizes he can’t see. “He’s the one who approached me. His bride was emailed some pretty badly altered photos and she believed them, calling off the wedding.”

“So what made you suspect the bridal shop?” Ned questions. “That sounds pretty personal.”

Nancy murmurs her agreement. “That’s what I assumed at first. But then Alex, the groom, went to his friend’s wedding. It was another one of Martha's weddings. Half the reception ended up in the hospital with food poisoning.”

“Yikes,” Ned says. “Not the happy memories Martha promises.”

“At least that couple was able to get married. I poked around a little and discovered that in the past two months, there hasn’t been much wedded bliss for Martha’s clients,” she replies, getting comfortable on her bed. “I had to weed through the mess a bit, but I found three more probable cases of sabotage. One couple’s wedding license was never filed, a bride had an allergic reaction to her bouquet, and a wedding dress was destroyed the night before the wedding.”

“Could all be coincidences,” Ned says. “Sorry, just playing devil’s advocate.”

Nancy laughs. “It’s okay—helpful, actually. All of the evidence pointed to one or more of the employees being careless when it comes to details. But then my friend traced the IP address of the computer that sent the photos to Alex’s fiancée.”

“Let me guess—it was the bridal shop’s?”

“Yep,” Nancy sighs. “And that one was definitely sabotage. No one who works there has any obvious reason for not wanting Alex to get married, though.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out, Nan,” he tells her.

She blushes at his use of her nickname. Less than twenty-four hours and he’s already talking to her like her family and close friends do.

“I have a confession,” he says, “I looked you up online. Your track record is impressive. This case will be a piece of cake for you. I’m happy to help any way I can.”

His offer proves true, and they talk every night on the phone. He listens with real interest to stories about some of her cases. She learns he lives in Mapleton and just finished his sophomore year at Emerson. At the first mention of football, it doesn’t take long for her to realize why his name sounded so familiar.

“My friend Bess was obsessed with one of your teammates. Brady, I think? She used to drag me to a lot of your games.”

“Imagine if we had bumped into each other then,” Ned muses.

“I’m sure you had plenty of girls by your side, Nickerson,” she laughs.

“Nah,” Ned says honestly. “I focused a lot on sports and keeping up my grades so I could get a scholarship to Emerson. Don’t get me wrong, I went on dates, but there was definitely no one like you.” He adds jokingly, “Bringing down an international smuggling ring would have definitely looked good on my college application.”

“Should I be worried about the wedding?” Ned asks two nights before the wedding. “Avoid uncooked shrimp and watch out for bombs disguised as boutonnieres?”

“Those are things you should always do,” Nancy advises with a laugh. “But honestly, your cousin’s wedding doesn’t seem to fit the profile. It’s way smaller and simpler than the others,” she says, recalling what little details Ned had been able to offer.

“My cousin’s doing. She wanted to do it all herself, but she finally relented and let my aunt hire Martha.”

Like most nights, their conversation drifts from the case, until Nancy remembers Bess’ request. “Do you know what the colors are for the wedding? Bess wants to make sure my dress doesn’t clash or something.”

“Well, every inch of my house is covered in light pink.”

Nancy relays the information to Bess the next afternoon. They’re in Nancy’s bedroom, Bess flipping through the dresses in the closet.

“I still can’t believe you actually roped a complete stranger into helping you.”

“I was about to get caught,” Nancy says defensively.

Bess throws her friend her best ‘I’m not buying it’ look. “You could talk yourself out of anything. There’s no way you panicked that badly. Plus, you’re going out with him. He must be a major hottie. Tell me you have a pic.”

Nancy reluctantly grabs her phone and pulls up the photo of them together.

Her friend curses under her breath. “Why did my parents insist I go with them to Colorado? I could have gone undercover for you.” Handing the phone back to Nancy, she winks. “But from the look he’s giving you, he probably wouldn’t have even noticed me.”

Nancy blushes. “We’re becoming friends.”

“For now,” Bess prophesizes, turning back to Nancy’s closet. “These are all horrible,” she announces a minute later.

“You picked out most of them,” Nancy reminds her.

“But none of them are perfect for a first date with your future husband. And you’re meeting your future in-laws,” Bess teases. “Wait, what’s this one?” Bess pulls out a garment bag.

“I went shopping the other day,” Nancy admits. “It was an impulse buy, though—totally wrong for the wedding.”

“You ignored the case to go shopping?” Bess asks incredulously.

“The wedding is part of the case,” Nancy reasons.

“Oh, you have it so bad.” Bess unzips the garment bag, “You are definitely wearing this,” she says, pulling out the turquoise dress. “Ned won’t know what hit him.”

“You don’t think it’s too much?” Nancy asks, taking the dress from Bess to hold it against herself. “It’s a small backyard wedding.”

Bess waves off Nancy’s protests. “Trust me. Now go put it on, so I can practice your hair and make-up.”

As much as Nancy hates all of Bess’ fussing in the moment, the look on Ned’s face when she has her grand entrance—a demand of Bess’—makes the hours she spent sitting still while Bess attacked her with make-up brushes and hair spray all worth it.

He stops mid-sentence in his conversation with Carson—a conversation Nancy would have loved to listen in on considering her father’s rapid-fire questions about Ned all week.

“You look amazing, Nan,” he says genuinely, his eyes sweeping over her.

She thanks him, absentmindedly brushing her palm against the lace of her dress. Despite Bess’ protests, Nancy still feels as if she’s overdressed.

Bess insists they let her take a picture of them, though, and from the brief glance she gets of the image, she’s startled to see how well she and Ned seem to fit together. Ned asks Bess to take a picture on his phone as well, and as he places a hand lightly on her waist, Nancy catches her father’s face.

Despite his amused smile, Carson remains tense. Nancy has brought dates home before to meet her father, and he’s never acted this way. She can’t help but feel like he’s noticing Ned isn’t like the others—that her reaction to him is a sign of something serious.

Nancy expects awkward small talk on the drive to his house, but they seamlessly fall back into the the easy rhythm they shared for the past week over the phone.

The ride to Mapleton goes by quickly, and Ned’s confident smile as he opens the car door for Nancy settles Nancy’s nerves about meeting his family.

“Wait,” Ned stops at his front door. “You’re forgetting something.”

“What?” Nancy asks, searching Ned’s face for a clue. “Was I supposed to bring a gift?”

Ned chuckles and shakes his head. “An engagement ring.”

“Oh,” Nancy says. “I told Martha it was being sized.”

Ned reaches into his pants pocket, pulling out a ring box. “Let’s hope this fits then.”

“Ned, you really shouldn’t have,” Nancy protests as he opens the box to reveal a sparkling sapphire and diamond ring.

“I borrowed it from my mom. But before you panic, it’s not some family heirloom. It’s a piece of costume jewelry. She helps out at the community theater.” He takes the ring out of the box as she reluctantly fans out her left hand.

“A perfect fit,” she says softly.

“Yeah,” Ned agrees, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “A perfect fit.”

He introduces Nancy to his family quickly, before Martha makes an appearance. She expects his family—especially his parents—to be weary of her given the unusual circumstances of their relationship.

Edith, his mother, surprises Nancy, though, welcoming her with a hug. She tells Nancy how much Ned talks about her, and he blushes, taking her hand to introduce her to another family member before his mother can say anything else. Aside from a few jokes from his cousins about him needing a fake girlfriend, all of Ned’s family accepts the lie they have to play along with.

Nancy and Ned are the perfect picture of a happy couple in love during the ceremony—Ned’s right arm is around her shoulders, holding her close, and somewhere between the vows and the couple’s first kiss as a married couple, Nancy finds herself reaching for the hand resting on his thigh. His family plays along during the reception, and even after Martha excuses herself, they treat Nancy as one of the family.

When it comes time for the bouquet toss, Nancy is pulled into the group of single women. She’s been to weddings before, but never has she felt the urge to actually try to catch the bouquet. And while she doesn’t quite reach Bess’ level of enthusiasm—knocking down Ned’s relatives wouldn’t be the best of ideas—Nancy does reach out.

She doesn’t catch it, and in a sense she’s thankful for that. It’s not that she believes the person who catches the bouquet really is the next one to get married, but it does seem like a lot of extra pressure they really don’t need. It’s only their first date and she’s already meeting his family with a ring on her left hand.

And while logically she knows it’s all pretend, she can’t pass off the way she feels around him as part of the ruse—the way her heart beats faster when she catches him looking at her or how she looks forward to his little texts throughout the day—she can’t deny that they mean this is becoming more than just another mystery to her.

They walk hand-in-hand up the cobblestone path to her porch that night. Nancy is no closer to solving the mystery, but instead of the usual uneasiness bubbling up inside from an unfinished case, her nerves are for a different reason. She doesn't know why it felt so natural to be around Ned and his family. She can't explain the almost magnetic pull between them or why she's more than just okay with it—she's _comforted_ by it.

The one thing she does know is that this is the first date she's ever ended not worrying about whether or not her date will kiss her. Her instincts, which she has learned to trust, tell her there will be plenty more opportunities and this has already been the best date she's ever gone on.

He does kiss her—a delicate press of his lips to her cheek. With a wink, he tells her he'd like to take her out on a real date, not one he gets for payment of a favor. It's almost hard for her to believe that's how this started between them. It's not as if he needed to coerce her; under any other circumstances, she wouldn't need to think twice about going on a date with him.

She twists the ring on her finger. “Thank you. And not just for pretending to be my fiancé. I had a really great time tonight.”

“I did too,” he says. “Thank you for picking me to be your fiancé," he jokes.

"There wasn't much competition," she teases, before flashing an honest smile. "You're the best man for the job."

"Remember that," he murmurs, placing another kiss against her cheek.

As he wishes her a good night and walks back to his car, Nancy dreads—for the first time—the end of a case. 

///

Ned shifts his weight from one foot to the other, glancing around the church. They’re on time, but Ned can’t help but fear his bride will be delayed by a last minute art heist across town or a recently paroled criminal out for revenge.

Given how they met, it would be ironically fitting that their own wedding be delayed, but Ned says a silent prayer that the day go off without a hitch. It’s been exactly four years to the day since the first—and only—time he saw her in a wedding dress. Their first engagement didn’t last long, Nancy figuring out that Martha’s assistant was trying to ruin her reputation and take over the business. 

It was silly, but Ned felt a sense of loss the day she returned the fake engagement ring. It lessened when she accepted his request of a date that night, and lessened more when his former fake fiancée officially became his real girlfriend. It hadn’t fully dissipated until the day her ring finger was once again donning a ring—a near exact replica of the first.

His mother smiles reassuringly from her seat in the front pew. Beside her, his father winks, and Ned feels a calmness rush over him. The standard his parents' marriage set was always high, and soon he'll have a chance at having the same happiness they share.

He slips his hand into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, reassuring himself that the index cards his vows are written on are still there. His fingers brush against the slightly thicker card stock paper George delivered to him this morning, bringing a smile to his face. 

_You're still the best man for the job_ , the note—encrypted in a code he and Nancy came up with years ago—reads. It's the only communication he's had with Nancy since last night.

After their rehearsal dinner, Ned and Nancy made a quick getaway to her father’s house to say goodbye alone, before Bess could enforce the rule of not seeing each other before the wedding. The co-maid of honor did confiscate Nancy’s phone just before midnight, though, and Ned was cut off cold-turkey from Nancy's texts.

Between Ned’s last years at Emerson and Nancy’s cases, they’ve gone longer without seeing each other. But they always had the option of talking, and not being able to talk to her today is unsettling. She's the only one he really wants to talk to about the mixture of excitement and nerves running through him.

One of Ned's young cousins appears at the back of the church, one hand clutching a small wicker basket, the other poised to drop the first few petals on the aisle. The petals fall from her grasp as the music begins, the ring bearer—another of Ned's cousins—following behind her.

By the time George and Howie make their way to Ned, he knows his impatience must be written clearly on his face. Bess and Mike smiled at him happily, but George and Howie have matching teasing grins on their faces as they slow their pace ever-so-slightly at the end of the aisle. He waits anxiously for Helen and Dave, and then Laurel and Burt, to make their own walks down the aisle.

It seems like an eternity before the music changes to the bridal march and Nancy and her father appear in Ned's line of view. He knows the image of Nancy in that first wedding dress will forever be burned in his memory, but this image—Nancy wearing her mother's dress, glowing as she walks toward him—far surpasses the memory of first seeing her.

His smile widens as he remembers his first thought when he saw her. He's the man lucky enough to call her his bride.


End file.
